Rushing Grebes

by Mike Lee

Title

Rushing Grebes

Artist

Mike Lee

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

Western grebes are very common in the lakes around northern California. Summer months are their mating season. I’ve always found their mating displays and courtship rituals to be quite interesting. Pairs do a little “weed ceremony” when they dive together, come up with weeds, and sort of wave them at each other. They also do several other little jigs where they bob their heads in unison and splash water with their beaks. My favorite part, seen here, is known as the rushing ceremony. Two birds will get up on the water and very rapidly run across the surface together, often for 30-50 feet. This will often be a male/female pair but it can also quite frequently be two males showing off trying to get female attention (weird, right?). In these situations, once a female is impressed and gravitates toward a male some aggressive competition can occur between the two males (also weird, right?). I captured these two birds rushing on a summer morning at Eagle Lake in Lassen County, California. I still hope to get a shot of them coming right at the camera but these were sort of quartering away from me which shows the splashes they leave in their wake and does a good job of conveying how quickly they get to cruising on the surface. I believe this was two males as there was a third bird running with them for just a second at the very beginning.

Uploaded

July 28th, 2022

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